Paper trail to jail breakouts

Posted: 09.25.2011 at 4:20 PM

ST. LOUIS, MO (AP) -- Recently released documents show a St. Louis jail commissioner who was suspended after several breakouts had sent repeated warnings to officials about low staffing and other problems.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that there were three jails breakouts over two years under Gene Stubblefield's watch. The same day he was suspended as the city's commissioner of corrections, another inmate escaped from the city's Medium Security Institution near the riverfront.

But emails and memos released by the office of Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed show Stubblefield had repeatedly warned officials in Mayor Francis Slay's office of issues, including the loss of key jail personnel.

Slay's office says the escapes had nothing to do with staffing levels and that the jails were fully staffed at the times of all four breakouts.

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com